Editor's note: You are able to submit your piece anytime until 11:59 p.m. on June 8th.
The Tacoma Ocean Fest Youth Story Contest is part of the Tacoma Ocean Fest event on September 13, 2020.
2020 Theme: We Are Ocean
The ocean is beautiful. Astonishing animals, wondrous underwater worlds, light, color, sound. And it’s right here on our doorstep: the misty, cold Salish Sea (Puget Sound).
But the ocean is also threatened. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Chemicals pollute and destroy. Climate change, fed by fossil fuels, heats and acidifies, killing kelp and coral. Orcas, salmon, sharks and other species are endangered.
Why should we care? Every other breath is made by the ocean. We need it for water, weather, food, life. We are all part of the same ecosystem.
It may seem weird or difficult to create a poem, film or data graph about the ocean when humanity is going through this devastating health crisis.
BUT – at Ocean Fest we believe that the health of humanity and the health of the planet are deeply connected. What happens to our Earth, and our ocean, happens to us. We ARE ocean. It is a perfect time to think creatively about how we can make a better future. You can do it!
